Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom player spends 6 months farming 999,999 Poes 

A player of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has spent around 6 months toiling away in The Depths of Hyrule to gather as many Poes as possible. It took X user Squall a staggering 1855 hours to collect 999,999 (the maximum number allowed) of the glowing spirit orbs. We interviewed Squall to find out why he decided to attempt this impressive feat. 

Half a year of Poe collecting 

Tears of the Kingdom allows the player to explore Hyrule from top to bottom. The diverse environments range from lofty sky islands to The Depths, a sprawling subterranean region located below the surface. There are unique elements that can only be found underground and one of these is Poe, a wandering blue spirit orb that cannot reach the afterlife. Link can collect Poes and offer them to Bargainer Statues to obtain a variety of rewards in return. Poes come in different sizes; pick up a regular one and you will get one Poe, however if you manage to find a Grand Poe, you will obtain 20 of the blue spirit orbs.  

An X user by the name of Squall has caused a stir by collecting an impressive 999,999 Poes, reporting that this is the maximum number that the game will allow you to carry. According to the trending post, which has almost 2 million views, this feat took 1855 hours. 

But how do you find that many Poes? In a subsequent post, Squall revealed the routes on the map using the game’s Hero’s Path mode. Two main routes can be identified; one starts near a deep hole in the middle of the Hyrule Fields and heads south in the direction of the South Lomei Depths Labyrinth. The second route cuts northeastward to the area around the abandoned mines in Lost Wood and Ebon Canyon. 

From the northeastern section of the map, the user headed eastward from the Zi-Ner Lightroot and then turned north near the Kegopa Lightroot. It seems to be a circular route that passes through areas of The Depths near the Abandoned Eldin Mine. It also includes the area around the Abandoned Gerudo Mine, as well as the Colgera boss locations near the Narusis and Nupisoyuat Lightroots.  

According to Squall, you can collect approximately 5500 Poe in one lap of this route. However, you have to take into account that Grand Poes take around 4 hours to respawn and that a Blood Moon does not cause them to reappear. In response to questions from other users, Squall revealed that he collected around 3000 to 5000 Poes on weekdays during the 6-month period. 

Why Poe though? 

In our interview, Squall revealed that he didn’t find any good routes for collecting Poe on strategy websites, so he developed his own through trial and error. Working out Poe collection routes was therefore the most difficult part of the challenge. At the start, Squall only visited the Abandoned Mines in various regions of the map. Eventually, he was able to utilize the knowledge of The Depths that he obtained when finding all the treasure chests, leading him to stick to the flat regions located underneath Gerudo and Elden where it is easy to collect Poe. 

Starting out with an initial route on which he could collect 3000 Poes in 2 hours, Squall extended it into a 4-hour route that would net him about 5000 Poes each time. On days when he had lots of time, Squall would do three 4-hour routes, collecting around 15,000 Poes. On the very last day, he collected 23,000 Poes, bringing the challenging 6-month quest to an end.  

When asked why he began collecting Poes in the first place, Squall explained that he wanted to continue playing Tears of the Kingdom for a long time. He said he has always liked gathering collectable items in games and chose Poes specifically because there are no known proliferation glitches. The fact that it would only be possible to collect the maximum number of Poes by gathering them in a straightforward manner also seems to have been a factor. 

When we questioned what motivated Squall to persevere with the self-imposed challenge for about half a year, Squall replied that he was motivated solely by curiosity. He wanted to see the maximum inventory count for Poes with his own eyes, becoming more invested as he watched the number increase into the thousands and beyond. By completing this challenge, he revealed that the max number of Poes you can carry stops just short of the one million mark.  

Fans of Tears of the Kingdom continue to explore interesting ways to play the game. Using Link’s Ultrahand ability to create all manner of bizarre inventions has proven particularly popular, with players building everything from steam trains to flying broomsticks, and even Godzilla. Others have set themselves impressive collection challenges, like X user Squall. If the item collection goals set by the developers are not enough for you, why not try following Squall’s Poe collecting route or setting your own impressive challenge? 

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available for the Nintendo Switch. 

Written by. Verity Townsend based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2024-01-09 16:49 JST)